On July 4, 2024, I enjoyed my annual Boar’s Head Liverwurst Hero Sandwich Extravaganza. Quarter of a pound of liverwurst, hot mustard, pickles and an orange soda were the condiment, side and beverage. This is a decades old ritual. Liverwurst just this once a year. As always, just like I noted in the Pulitzer Prize nominated essay, Liverwurst, it was delicious.
Then, tragedy struck when on September 13, 2024, Boar's Head announced their decision to "permanently discontinue" the deli meat. This was months after the discovery of an ongoing listeria outbreak was which was linked to a "specific production process" that caused 57 hospitalizations across 18 states, including nine deaths as of late August. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was made aware of the deadly outbreak on July 19 and issued a recall for 207,528 pounds of Boar's Head liverwurst seven days later. That’s a lot of sandwiches. The "root cause" of the contamination, according to Boar's Head, was a "a specific production process that only existed at the Jarratt facility in Virginia and was used only for liverwurst." Conditions at the plant were too disgusting to list in a family focused essay. “This is a dark moment in our company’s history,” Boar’s Head said.
This was a darker moment in John Cafarella history since the Boar’s Head liverwurst hero sandwich with mustard, sour dill kosher pickles and orange soda was an annual July 4 event. I had just had mine two weeks earlier while Listeria was rampant. What would I do for the next 4th of July?
Many people to whom I have describe the yearly liverwurst ritual feast have asked, “what is liverwurst?” Well, liverwurst is a traditional meat-based sausage that is otherwise known as ‘liver sausage.’ However, meat is not the only ingredient, and the German sausage contains a variety of ingredients. While it originated in Germany, it can also be found in Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and many other European regions. Liverwurst is also very popular also in some regions of South America like Chile and Argentina, but the flavor profiles of these differ vastly. Each of these countries have their own version of liverwurst, but the main structure remains the same. Liverwurst consists of four main components: meat, animal fat, liver, and spices. Beef and pork are the main two types of meat used to make liverwurst. The ingredients are usually pork, allspice, coriander, marjoram, mustard seed, nutmeg, thyme, and white pepper.
Liverwurst contains almost 15 grams of protein per 100g. It is extremely high In Vitamin B12 (and Other B Vitamins) as well as a significant source of Retinol (Vitamin A). It is loaded with Iron and Selenium. On the other hand it is very very extremely high In sodium as it contains humongous amounts of salt, around 42% of the recommended daily intake for sodium……It is also high in fat and cholesterol…….But if you only eat it once a year………. Now it was gone. All gone. Gone gone gone. Peanut butter and jelly would be a poor substitute as would a tomato sandwich. I would have joined a liverwurst loss support group but alas there aren’t any. I thought of starting one but the only other person I know who likes liverwurst is my sister, Mary and she lives in California. So, the sudden apocalyptic demise of Boar’s Head liverwurst set me on an immediate Quest for replacement liverwurst for future Fourths of July. It wasn’t easy. Thank goodness Margaret joined in the Quest even though she is not a liverwurst fan. She would turn out to be the heroine of this story. We were now the Fellowship of the Sausage.
We would encounter many strange lands and beings on our Lord of the Rings like Quest. The first stop was a Kroger’s in Kettering Ohio where our son, Brian his wife, Lisa, and our grandson, Gavin live. After weaving our way past multiple circuitous paths through and around the Fruit and Veggies Islands featuring blueberries, bananas, and some green things with black spots, we arrived at a clearing with the cold cuts counter in the distance. We were briefly distracted by the Valley of Cheese section and the variety of cheddars. We tore ourselves away from the Cracker Clearing and breathlessly arrived at the Cold Cuts Peninsula. A smiling woman magically appeared behind the counter. Margaret, thinking I was safe, had gone back to the crackers. Preferencing my humble request by noting that I was aware of the Boar’s Head Disaster. I asked this mysterious woman if they had any liverwurst. With a look of terror on her face, she bellowed “No!” and then “they may have it at the meat counter” as she ran into a back room and disappeared, leaving me gaping at variety of smoked turkey and a baloney-like meat product with olives in it. Clearly, this Quest would not be a simple one. Our Fellowship of the Sausage set off for the meat counter. We were delayed and tempted by the aromas and selection of breads at the Baked Goods Alley but tore ourselves away. Unfortunately, we got lost in the Cereal Maze. This took a while to escape as we learned that there are at least 20 different kinds of Cheerios. Then, on the other side of the Flavored Water Forest, was the meat counter, Cholesterol Central Station. Yards and yards of meats. We searched the sliced cold meats to no avail. We inquired at the counter and the butcher laughed heartily at our liverwurst request as he waved a cleaver at us. Chastened, we retreated as clearly, the meat section was a liverwurst free zone.
Disappointed but not discouraged, Margaret suggested continuing our Quest at Mama DiSalvo’s Italian Deli which might have our elusive German sausage. Our Quest was becoming more and more similar to the Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring except instead of the Mountains of Moria, we were searching for Liverwurst Land. While there were no Orcs, Ringwraiths, or Sauron or Dragons, there were red lights with the driver next to us sharing Hip Hop, at an ear-splitting volume with the world, construction lane closings featuring flaggers confused by their own “Slow” and “Stop” sign and just held it sideways, and kamikaze left turn makers. It was also 95 degrees. We finally arrived at Mama DiSalvo’s Italian Deli. Again, as at Kroger, there were many obstacles filled with temptation to be navigated. There was Frozen Pasta Estates featuring, gnocchi, cheese torellini, and my favorite, meat ravioli. We took a meat ravioli. Moving on we arrived at Mama DiSalvo’s Home Made Pasta Sauce Acres. We almost didn’t make it past the pasta sauce Margaret was captured by spell woven by a woman sitting at a table (they serve lunch there) who described the wonders of a pasta and vodka sauce and how they had it for dinner and “it’s right there on the second shelf”, and Margaret nodded and was polite but our quest had come to a halt. We suspect she was the mythical Vizier of Vodka in disguise. Her mission was to distract Liverwurst seekers. Finally, Margaret broke the spell by selecting a Fra Diablo sauce as she nodded and nodded and smiled and nodded and backed away. The woman realized her lunch was getting cold, and her husband was beginning to snore and returned to her lunch. If you are ever bewitched by the Vizier of Vodka pasta sauce, grab a jar of Fra Diablo pasta sauce and the spell will be broken. There was more to come though as we still had to get past the Italian Candy Land. Margaret loves the candy. She always gets two boxes, “one for me and one for Lisa” and then keeps both boxes. Finally, arms full with candy and ravioli and pasta sauce appearing before us was the …..Realm of the Counter where reigned, The Lady of the Deli. After waiting to be acknowledged, I respectfully submitted my request. “Do you have any liverwurst?” She gently smiled, no, they didn’t have it. But that wasn’t all, Being The Lady of the Deli and thus having magical powers (she also knows how to operate the espresso machine) and mystical knowledge, she then launched into a discourse about how buying is down during election years. “People are not spending money”, she informed. It happens every election year. Presumably this included liverwurst. She then expanded to explain that most cold cuts are regional and regional cold cuts included Thuman’s brand which distributes to “the east coast”, which I presume includes Ohio. No, they didn’t have any Thuman’s liverwurst, probably because it was an election year. But we should keep checking. So, on every trip to Ohio, we should now visit Mama DiSalvo’s Italian Deli, wend our way past the pasta, pasta sauce and Italian candy, and ask The Lady of the Deli if she has Thuman’s liverwurst. We promised to return, and she made me an espresso.
Liverwurstless, we continued our Ohio visit. During the (very) brief respites between chasing and racing and playing games with our grandson, Gavin, I looked up liverwurst brands on the search engine, Duck Duck Goose. I thought that since pâté, is made of goose liver, the Goose part of Duck Duck Goose would be helpful. I discovered, while using mystical passwords, that there are several liverwurst alternative brands but once again the Quest got confusing. Many sites use Braunschweiger and Liverwurst interchangeably. Braunschweiger? What was Braunschweiger? Could it be yet another detour in our Quest for the Land of Liverwurst laid down by the Saurons of Sausage? A subsequent trip to another local supermarket, the Dorothy Lane Market led us to the sliced meat cooler where we discovered Braunschweiger as we were looking for Liverwurst. Which was Braunschweiger and which was liverwurst? We thought we had been led astray but Braunschweiger is another sausage that originated in Brunswick, Germany. Egad! The main difference between Braunschweiger and liverwurst is that liverwurst is a more generic term for any liver sausage, while Braunschweiger is smoked. Afraid to make a decision, we returned to Brian’s house and resumed the exhausting practice of keeping up with a six-year-old. The liverwurst quest would be postponed until next summer when thoughts would once again turn to the 4th of July. I saved all the liverwurst research in a Liverwurst Quest Folder on our computer desktop.
The drive home from Kettering to Canadensis is a long one, 9 hrs. Little did we know that we would resume The Quest. It was Margaret who would succeed. We always stop at a Weis’ Supermarket close to home at the conclusion of our trip. Margaret goes in and gets the necessities, bread, orange juice, and milk. I wait in the car. I am not allowed in as I am easily distracted by non-necessities such as chocolates, pretzels, and unsalted peanuts. Shopping complete, Margaret returned to the car. We got home. We unpacked. Smiling, Margaret revealed that evidently under a mysterious Sausage Spell, she was led to the sliced meat section and there was…………..Jones Braunshweiger Liverwurst Sliced. What could be bad? It was Braunschweiger and it was Liverwurst! It was very exciting. This was a Sunday. Somehow, I resisted trying my Jones Braunshweiger Liverwurst Sliced until Tuesday. The spirit of the Lady of the Deli must have had an effect in some way. Clearly, I was not going to wait until the 4th of July. Tuesday arrived. My dinner would be Jones Braunshweiger Liverwurst Sliced but on a Kaiser roll, not a lengthy hero roll. No orange soda but I did have Pocono Pickle Guy pickles and hot mustard. It was sublime! Wonderful! Delicious. Thanks to Margaret, the Quest for the Sausage was over. It ended in triumph. Fellowship of the Ring Director, Peter Jackson could now make our adventure into his usual three movie Trilogy.
